The Third Reich in Power

The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war. This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of The Atlantic Monthly as "the definitive English-language account... gripping and precise." It chronicles the incredible story of Germany's radical reshaping under Nazi rule.

The Third Reich at War

Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the war’s progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives. The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since. Fresh insights into the conflict’s great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitler’s suicide in the bunker.

The Pursuit of Power: Europe: 1815-1914

Richard J. Evans's gripping narrative ranges across a century of social and national conflicts, from the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 to the unification of both Germany and Italy, from the Russo-Turkish wars to the Balkan upheavals that brought this era of relative peace and growing prosperity to an end. The first single-volume history of the century, this comprehensive and sweeping account gives the listener a magnificently human picture of Europe in the age when it dominated the rest of the globe.

The Russian Revolution: A New History

Historian Sean McMeekin traces the events that ended Romanov rule, ushered the Bolsheviks into power, and introduced communism to the world. Between 1917 and 1922, Russia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation. Taking advantage of the collapse of the Tsarist regime in the middle of World War I, the Bolsheviks staged a hostile takeover of the Russian Imperial Army, promoting mutinies and mass desertions of men in order to fulfill Lenin's program of turning the "imperialist war" into civil war.

In life and in his grisly family suicide, Goebbels was one of Hitler's most loyal acolytes. Though powerful in the party and in wartime Germany, Longerich's Goebbels is a man dogged by insecurities and consumed by his fierce adherence to the Nazi cause. Longerich engages and challenges the careful self-portrait that Goebbels left behind in his diaries, and, as he delves deep into the mind of Hitler's master propagandist, Longerich discovers firsthand how the Nazi message was conceived. This complete portrait of the man behind the message is sure to become a standard for historians and students of the Holocaust for years to come.

The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945

From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II. Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost World War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as long as it did.

To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949

The European catastrophe, the long continuous period from 1914 to1949, was unprecedented in human history - an extraordinarily dramatic, often traumatic, and endlessly fascinating period of upheaval and transformation.

The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945; Citizens and Soldiers

As early as 1941, Allied victory in World War II seemed all but assured. How and why, then, did the Germans prolong the barbaric conflict for three and a half more years? In The German War, acclaimed historian Nicholas Stargardt draws on an extraordinary range of primary source materials - personal diaries, court records, and military correspondence - to answer this question. He offers an unprecedented portrait of wartime Germany, bringing the hopes and expectations of the German people to vivid life.

Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945

From one of our finest military historians comes a monumental work that shows us at once the truly global reach of World War II and its deeply personal consequences. Remarkably informed and wide-ranging, Inferno is both elegantly written and cogently argued. Above all, it is a new and essential understanding of one of the greatest and bloodiest events of the 20th century.

Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich

The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler's personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion.

David_in_Tennessee says:"Written like a term paper by a student wanting to impress"

The Second World War

Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of World War II. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, The Second World War. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on World War II.

Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

In the aftermath of World War II, Prussia - a centuries-old state pivotal to Europe's development - ceased to exist. In their eagerness to erase all traces of the Third Reich from the earth, the Allies believed that Prussia, the very embodiment of German militarism, had to be abolished. But as Christopher Clark reveals in this pioneering history, Prussia's legacy is far more complex.

The Arms of Krupp: 1587-1968

The Arms of Krupp brings to life Europe's wealthiest, most powerful family, a 400-year German dynasty that developed the world's most technologically advanced weapons, from cannons to submarines to antiaircraft guns; provided arms to generations of German leaders, including the Kaiser and Hitler; operated private concentration camps during the Nazi era; survived conviction at Nuremberg; and wielded enormous influence on the course of world events.

Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich is widely recognized as one of the great iconic villains of the 20th century, an appalling figure even within the context of the Nazi leadership. Chief of the Nazi Criminal Police, the SS Security Service, and the Gestapo, ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and leading planner of the "Final Solution," Heydrich played a central role in Hitler's Germany.

HITLER: 1936-1945 Nemesis

As Nemesis opens, Adolf Hitler has achieved absolute power within Germany and triumphed in his first challenge to the European powers. Idolized by large segments of the population and firmly supported by the Nazi regime, Hitler is poised to subjugate Europe. Nine years later, his vaunted war machine destroyed, Allied forces sweeping across Germany, Hitler will end his life with a pistol shot to his head.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.

The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."

The Great Terror: A Reassessment

The definitive work on Stalin's purges, The Great Terror was universally acclaimed when it first appeared in 1968. While the original volume had relied heavily on unofficial sources, later developments within the Soviet Union provided an avalanche of new material, which Conquest has mined to write this revised and updated edition of his classic work.

The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich

A groundbreaking historical contribution, The Devil's Diary is a chilling window into the mind of Adolf Hitler's "chief social philosopher", Alfred Rosenberg, who formulated some of the guiding principles behind the Third Reich's genocidal crusade.

The Gestapo: A History of Horror

From 1933 to 1945, the Gestapo was Nazi Germany's chief instrument of counter-espionage, political suppression, and terror. Jacques Delarue, a saboteur arrested by the Nazis in occupied France, chronicles how the land of Beethoven elevated sadism to a fine art. The Gestapo: A History of Horror draws upon Delarue's interviews with ex-Gestapo agents to deliver a multi-layered history of the force whose work included killing student resisters, establishing Aryan eugenic unions, and implementing the Final Solution.

Fur Volk and Fuhrer: The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

Like many Germans, Berlin schoolboy Erwin Bartmann fell under the spell of the Zeitgeist cultivated by the Nazis. Convinced he was growing up in the best country in the world, he dreamt of joining the Leibstandarte, Hitler's elite Waffen SS unit. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, and just 17-years-old, Erwin fulfilled his dream on Mayday 1941, when he gave up his apprenticeship at the Glaser bakery in Memeler Strasse and walked into the Lichterfelde barracks in Berlin as a raw, volunteer recruit.

Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941

By the acclaimed journalist and New York Times best-selling author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this day-by-day eyewitness account of the momentous events leading up to World War II in Europe is the private, personal, utterly revealing journal of a great foreign correspondent.

The Forgotten Soldier

When Guy Sajer joins the infantry full of ideals in the summer of 1942, the German army is enjoying unparalleled success in Russia. However, he quickly finds that for the foot soldier the glory of military success hides a much harsher reality of hunger, fatigue, and constant deprivation. Posted to the elite Grosse Deutschland division, he enters a violent and remorseless world where all youthful hope is gradually ground down, and all that matters is the brute will to survive.

Stalin, Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928

Volume One of Stalin begins and ends in January 1928 as Stalin boards a train bound for Siberia, about to embark upon the greatest gamble of his political life. He is now the ruler of the largest country in the world, but a poor and backward one, far behind the great capitalist countries in industrial and military power, encircled on all sides. In Siberia, Stalin conceives of the largest program of social reengineering ever attempted.

Publisher's Summary

There is no story in 20th-century history more important to understand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time. A masterful synthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated with important new research and interpretations, Evans’s history restores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, even as it shows how ready Germany was by the early 1930s for such a takeover to occur. The Coming of the Third Reich is a masterwork of the historian’s art and the book by which all others on the subject will be judged.

This is a horrifying and depressing story, but an important one. Richard Evans is a careful historian, not given to hyperbole and dramatic flourishes, and Sean Pratt matches his tone with a comfortable pace and even tone. Yet in its methodical way, the book lays out a gripping tale.

One point Evans makes is that the Nazis did NOT come to power democratically; they never won more than about 38% of the popular vote. Their victory was a result of PR, brutal street violence, and "backstairs intrigue," with their participation in the electoral process mostly for show. Once in, they proceeded to infiltrate and dominate every aspect of German society, down to the smallest blue-collar singing club in the smallest rural village. Everything was made to point in the same direction in a massive program of "coordination."

One of the most depressing aspects of this whole dismal saga, to me, is the way the Nazis were able to take over German culture, science, and higher education. Jewish musicians were fired; "non-Aryan" physicists and biologists were forced out of the universities and out of the country, to the great impoverishment of German science; philosophy was dominated by Martin Heidegger, who fully embraced the Nazi program. Gung-ho college students tore through bookshops and libraries, seizing "anti-German" material and throwing it onto a bonfire.

The book stops in the spring of 1933, just after the Nazi revolution and before the brown shirts were decimated in the "Night of the Long Knives." The second volume in the trilogy, "The Third Reich in Power," is available on Audible with the same narrator. (I'm going to wait a few weeks before I tackle that one: I need some time to recover from the first volume.)

I am not the target audience for this book. Evans says, in the preface, that his target are those who know little or nothing of this period and I have been reading about the lead-up to World War II for most of my adult life starting with Shirer's The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich (a book Evans does not think much of).

I had not expected to learn very much new, but found how wrong I was about that. The first 1/3 of the book involves the period from the start of the Bismarck period through the end of World War I and does not involve any of the familiar names (Hitler, Goering, Gobbles, Hess, Himmler, etc). It does give the background that provided the fertile ground that allowed the Nazi movement to find purchase. In doing so the author shows that the Nazi beliefs in anti-Semitism, anti-Marxism, anti-socialism, their disdain for democracy, their belief in pan-Germanism and their desire to find extra living space in the East were not new to German culture or beliefs, but had been around for a long time. And this foundation does much to explain the speed with which the Nazi movement gained ground and grew. The remainder of this volume deals with the Nazis themselves, their allies, their opponents, their climb to power and the individuals involved.

I have only two complaints about this book. The first concerns the author's decision to make no moral judgments about the morality of the Nazi actions. While I understand the desire to create a history that deals with facts rather than emotions, this decision seems to me to often ignore how basically evil the events being described were. The second complaint is with the uninspired reading by Sean Pratt. Most of the reading is monotone and, even more annoying, his reading contains pauses in the middle of sentences which have no contextual meaning and serve only to break-up the logical flow of thought.

But these are minor concerns. I am waiting for Audible to add the next volume of this history.

This is a thorough and well-organized history of late Weimar Republic Germany. There are many disturbing similarities to 2010 America.

My only gripe would be the narrator, who often pauses mid-sentence (not at a comma) and reminds one of a high school student. He mispronounces even some common words. To top it off, he narrates with a sarcastic tone which makes his mediocre reading ability even more annoying. BTW, you won't notice these things in your "sample listening." It will take you about an hour of listening for him to really begin getting on your nerves.

Over the years, I have fancied myself as an amateur expert on WWII and the Third Reich. This tome proved their is so much to learn. This is the first volume that places the Third Reich in and time and space continuum, where factors inside and out of Germany molded the future of the country. A closer look at Bismarck, the effects of WWI on the natinal psyche, the perceived failings of the Weimar Republic, the distressed world-wide economy, inherent German conservatism and nationalism, communist aggitation and latent anti-semitism conspired to make the Thrid Reich.

Read this book and you will understand how a minority party utilizing terror, scape-goatism and an emotional, not intellectual,appeal led Hitler to legal/consitutional power.

Life is breathed into the main characters, deflecting the grainy photos and memories from the past. Some were complex, some were simple and some were conflcited as the played part in this tragic play. The Third Reich was not inevitable, because early on courageous people and forces could have taken a stand against evil and turned the Riech into a historical footnote.

This production of Richard Evans great book is seriously hobbled by poor narration. Odd pauses and hesitations totally pull you out of the narrative. The text itself is excellent. If you are interested in this topic, Defying Hitler is a great memoir with a wonderful narrator.

Having studied the Weimar era extensively, I am thrilled that this book is available! Much of what is discussed here was, at one time, only available in German, as I know only too well from my own years of research. It is an outstanding book in every way, and I would recommend it to anyone, from those who have researched the era to those who are new to it. Yes, the narrator is abyssmal, but I have heard worse. Perhaps the trilogy will become a classic and we will have better narrators in the future. Until then, try to put up with Pratt or read the print edition because there are invaluable and relevant insights and historical lessons for us all in this series.

This book is the first of a trilogy explaining how the Nazis gained power in Germany. It is an important, well written and accessible book. Unfortunately the alleged narrator (and I use that term lightly) manages to ruin it. He stumbles from word to word as though completely unaware that they are in any way connected to one another in things which we call 'sentences'. He manages to pause in all the wrong places as he drones his way through the book, systematically reducing it from fascinating information to monotonous drivel. Whatever this person does professionally he should return to it. Poor Richard Evans. Great writing, preposterous narration. The four stars go to the book with minus five black holes to the 'narrator'.

I am very pleased the Richard Evans Reich trilogy is available (pt 3 TBA). I am not so keen on the reader. Too many pauses in mid sentence. When he lands a full sentence without a pause it flows so much better. And there are some glaring pronunciation errors (Leon Trossky, etc). Still, to have this on audio is great.

Good book to get a feel for how Germany devolved into the tyranny of Hitler's dictatorship. I wish it would have delved more into the personal lives of those involved. Why did the Jews not revolt, stand up and not take it? It does go into how rights were steadily laken away. But it stops well before WWII. Understandable since it is titled "The Coming of the 3rd Reich". All in all a good read.

Evans not only has encyclopedic knowledge of his subject, but also the ability to weave it all together into a compelling narrative. Too bad they couldn't find someone to narrate it compellingly. The lackluster reading came close to killing this book as an audio experience. Where are the Patrick Tulls of the 21st century?

The book is a very thorough introduction to the history of Germany during the period leading up to the Nazi rule. It's the first of three volumes and itself is divided into three separate audio files. It's well arranged into general themes and dips back into the Bismarkian period as well as across Germany's borders into Austria, to give a comprehensive treament of the lead up to the Third Reich.

The reading is poor. The reader's American accent is not the problem - it's quite mellow. But he seems unfamiliar with even normal American English pronounciations - dockers steal goods from the "kwayside" (quayside) , and people are "booeyed up" (bouyed).

The real frustration is that he seems to be reading the book for the first time without any understanding of what he's reading. He reads it line -
by line -
with meaningless pauses as he gets to the end of each line. Most of the time this is a mild but constant irritation. At some points though, he confuses or distorts the meaning of what was written. We hear that soldiers "returning from the front sometimes disarmed
- then arrested workers"
Or about a "collapse of the Reich
- created by Bismark" ( of course it was the Reich that was created by Bismark but sounds as if Bismark created the collapse!)
This leaves the hearer frequently wondering what was meant by the last sentence. Sometimes the pause is a valid one but the he fails to give it the proper intonation so that it sounds like another arbitrary one. So we hear that the "collapse of the Wilhemina Reich was their chance to -
and they seized it" ( he means "too" but pronounces it as if he is about to tell us what it was that they had a chance to do).
The subject of the book is not light and there is a lot of complex information to understand. The reader should be helping with that understanding conveying meaning in his voice. Unfortunately this reader does not appear to understand what he is reading and hinders that understanding as a result.

14 of 15 people found this review helpful

Hudds Man

10/28/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Here's how it happened"

Would you consider the audio edition of The Coming of the Third Reich to be better than the print version?

If I had time to read I would but using the audio version I can listen in the car.

What didn’t you like about Sean Pratt’s performance?

Read as though he hadn't seen the words before. Some inappropriate pauses and weird pronunciations. Quay pronounced to rhyme with way instead of like key.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was surprised by the background and it helped me understand how and why Germany fell into this trap in 1933.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Shaun

Staines

8/10/10

Overall

"Comprehensive and highly academic"

This is indeed a comprehensive history of the rise to the power of the Nazis, starting with a history of Germany in the 19th century.Hitler doesn't even get a mention until about halfway into the book! This book is not for the fainthearted and certainly not for the lay reader, and is aimed at the serious history student. What does irritate is the American narration - why not a British reader? - and his peculiar treatment of some words. For example, he always pronounces 'bourgeois' as 'burr-geois' which really irritates after the tenth time! But if you are looking for a serious study, then look no further.

8 of 13 people found this review helpful

Stuart Sorensen

10/16/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Really interesting and relevant for today too"

This was really informative although it'll take a second listening to really 'get it'. Well organised and well written. My only criticism was slow narration. But that was easy fixed by playing it at 1.2x speed.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

michael Billington

BELFAST

7/8/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"An essential Work"

Where does The Coming of the Third Reich rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is one of the finest audiobooks I have purchased and would recommend it highly to anyone interested in history.

What other book might you compare The Coming of the Third Reich to, and why?

I would compare this book to William Shires Rise and Fall of The Third Reich, and the works of Ian Kershaw. For the comprehensive nature and its exploration of the forces which led to the rise of the Nazi's.

Have you listened to any of Sean Pratt’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I have listened to Sean Pratt's performance on Michael Burlingame's Abraham Lincoln: A Life. I would say this is a better effort.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I was disgusted at the descriptions of the virulent anti-Semitism which pervaded much of German society.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Marcus

London, United Kingdom

1/14/11

Overall

"Solid and vast telling of a familiar tale"

Having studied a lot of this period there was still plenty of new material and analysis. How the battle between the Nazi's and the left wing parties played out was particulary interesting. However it didn't grip fully as there are still two parts to go and I still haven't decided to get them.

2 of 4 people found this review helpful

Once We Were Fiction

Kent

11/27/11

Overall

"History of the Highest Standard"

I know I did this all wrong, but I actually came to this book last, having already listened to the other two parts of the trilogy.

Perhaps of the three, this is the most dry, but you know, it kind of has to be. It focuses on the political machinations surrounding the Nazis through to 1933. Some of the political nuances are not that easy to follow, but Evans doesn't shy away from them. He shows how the Nazi party were able to exploit dubious precedents to create the veneer of legality.

It really is (just like the other parts) brilliantly written, inuitively organised, and clearly narrated at a comfortable pace.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough.

1 of 3 people found this review helpful

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